Photo credit Anthony Hill on Unsplash
Covid-19 changed the way we moved about our daily lives. Confidence in outdoor was at an all-time low. However, brands were still looking to invest in out of home assets that reached Australian’s in their new daily mobility patterns – for example essential services took off.
Whilst the lights may have dimmed for a short while in 2020 for OOH, the fact of the matter is, OOH remains the most relevant channel to reach moving audiences. According to WARC’s latest report, OOH will be the second-fastest growing medium in 2021, with ad spend rising by more than 20%*.
Findings from a recent Posterscope study indicated the following post-Covid sentiments on OOH:
89% of people stated they notice out of home advertising across any environment
45% find out of home advertising even more noticeable and feel even more positive towards it than before Covid-19
When asked about attitudes towards their outdoor environment and local area, 70% of respondents said they are now paying more attention to what is generally going on around them, making them value their out of home space more.
It seems that as people are spending more time in their local communities for working, shopping and leisure they are noticing and engaging more with OOH.
We took a sneak peak at Apple and Google mobility data - Google mobility data for Australia indicated that we were just 6% off baseline for workplaces across the country. And it’s no surprise that we are spending more time in our home suburbs- + 3% (see graph below).
Source: Google: COVID-19 Community Mobility Report Australia 12 March 2021
Apple Maps data indicates that people are driving more than ever! What an opportunity for roadside outdoor, street furniture and petrol and convenience. Taken from https://covid19.apple.com/mobility
Q4 2020 started to display green-shoots evidenced by investment in large format and retail. While people may not have been commuting to the city as much, they were still moving about in the suburbs and in shopping centres.
We can see now that since January more people are walking and driving to their place of work again. Media agencies and owners are close to having 75% of staff back in the office. Even in Victoria, offices can have up to 75% of people back in the workplace.
With no new Covid-19 cases for sometime now, cinema’s back to full capacity and our favourite - live music and entertainment back on the map, it’s safe to say Outdoor audiences are back.
With investment from media owners to digitise their assets and improve their tech-stack continuing to grow and post-pandemic reports of screen fatigue due to excessive social media habits (#doomscrolling 🤦♀️) - there has never been a better time to turn to OOH for your upcoming campaigns.